Regarding the Hollywood water tower clocks, I've been making fun of this boondoggle since they started going haywire soon after their installation last May. The twin LED screens, positioned on the north and south sides for passing traffic on I-95, were supposed to show the time and temperature.

It seemed kind of a waste of money considering most cars have built-in clocks and thermometers on their dashboards these days, along with clocks and temperature readings on most smart phones that people now carry.

But if there's one thing that Hollywood excels at, it's wasting money. The city dug itself a huge budget hole, with cutbacks to employees and their benefits, but they used money for the clock from the city's water/sewer utility budget.

At first, the temperature readings were way off, then the time was off, then the screens were switched off as electronic chips were ordered and re-ordered. When I drove past on Saturday morning, one screen was dark and the other read "8888."

As for Blockbuster, a flagship store in Fort Lauderdale near the company's former headquarters shuttered after 25 years last week. That leaves only three stores in Broward (Tamarac, Davie, Margate) and five in Palm Beach county. The company is now owned by Dish Network.

Fort Lauderdale businessman Jim Ellis, a former Blockbuster executive under Huizenga and a pioneer of the video-store industry, said he wonders if people realize how influential Blockbuster was to the region. Besides making a lot of individuals rich, the chain was an instrumental backer to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale.

"It was a great ride," Ellis said. "Watching its demise is a sad thing, but life goes on. Business happens."

Here's an email I got today from former Blockbuster executive Gerry Weber, who was Chief Operating Officer of Blockbuster Video and President of Blockbuster Music from late 1987 until a year after the Viacom merger:

Your article on Blockbuster missed the point.

Blockbuster would be synonymous with entertainment no matter the delivery vehicle. Sumner Redstone (Viacom CEO) orchestrated the company's demise.

Blockbuster was a vertically integrated entertainment company with assets such as Spelling Television, and Republic Pictures which had thousands of hours of programming in their libraries along with then current hit shows and movies. Interests in music and technology companies. NewLeaf was a technology that was ahead of Napster and the other downloading programs.

Viacom stripped Blockbuster of its entertainment assets and used the stores' cash flow to buy Paramount and CBS. They then set Blockbuster adrift on its own saddled with a huge debt.

Everyone knew that the bricks and mortar outlets would eventually disappear.

The merger with Viacom was the result of the unrelenting assault on the company by short sellers, industry pundits, and journalists..who viciously attacked the company.

I still remember the USA Today headline on the day of our annual shareholders meeting in the early 90's "Blockbuster a casket case within 12 months". Dan Dorfman wrote this to help his short selling buddies.

Blockbuster and Wayne Huizenga helped put Fort Lauderdale on the business map. Many of our cultural and charitable institutions owe their existence to Blockbuster.

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 27, 2012 09:24 AM

Not to be a cynic or a pessimist, but let's remember that 1992 was an extraordinarily light storm year too.

There was only one major hurricane in the Atlantic basin that whole season.

Its name was Andrew.

You know, the Category 5 monster that leveled Homestead and much of southern Miami-Dade, altering South Florida's landscape forever.

Hard to believe that we're coming up to the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew this August, but it serves as a jarring reminder that long-range hurricane forecasts are about the most useless thing around.

Because it doesn't matter whether it's a heavy year or a light year, all it takes is one big storm to seriously ruin your decade.

The last couple of years have been pretty active, but ultimately harmless for Florida, with all the storms veering elsewhere.

So whether the experts predict light or heavy years, with favorable or unfavorable conditions for storm development, I always say the same thing: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and until we get to the cone-shaped heart of storm season in August, September and October, there's no point getting too stressed or relieved.

Metcalf, who was in his first month of his first combat tour, became the 324th Floridian killed in post 9/11 conflicts, the 11th from Palm Beach County.

But he was so much more than a statistic, a fun-loving Florida kid who went by the name Cowboy Mike because bull riding was one of his hobbies. The thing that struck me most about his death: He was only 12 when the U.S. went into Afghanistan the month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. More than a decade later, we're still there.

Our troops are still being deployed, still fighting, still dying.

As I wrote in today's paper:

With our all-volunteer forces, it's too easy for the rest of us to take their service and sacrifices for granted.

Kim Metcalf (Michael's mother) said her son loved the Army, but she summed up the frustrations of many military families and Americans when she told WPEC-Ch.12 that the ongoing U.S. presence in Afghanistan is "ridiculous."

"My son said they were rebuilding in this area and [ the locals] kept bombing to knock things down, and they still sent troops in this area to rebuild," Kim Metcalf said. "It goes on and on."

A decade ago, there was near-unanimous sentiment that we had to be in Afghanistan to take out al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden and topple their Taliban enablers. Now, after so much blood and treasure spilled, people are weary. And wary. How is this supposed to end?

Shortly after I sent the column, I headed over to the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood for Wednesday's Elvis Costello concert. When I arrived, I found the complex awash in Navy white, as hundreds of sailors and Marines were there for a Fleet Week welcome rally.

So many faces looked so young, impossibly young, as if they should have been heading out to their proms. Some of them looked like they've never had to shave.

And yet they've all signed up to serve. Even with wars raging. Some of them have been deployed to hot spots, helping support combat and other foreign missions. Some of them have safer domestic postings.

But they all deserve our gratitude.

When I went to a bar after the show, I bought a couple of sailors some drinks. Least I could do, I figured.

The part about how their 5-year-old son woke up in the middle of a terrorizing ordeal that ended in Joseph Morrissey's brutal stabbing death is just too much.

The Morrisseys were bound in their bedroom, at the mercy of two intruders, while their son slept. When the son woke up, the Nova Southeastern professor told him to pretend he was sleeping, giving the child a better chance at surviving.

"Do it for daddy," Linda Morrissey recalled her husband saying.

And then she went on to describe how her husband was ordered to hop out of the bedroom and then stabbed to death, allegedly by a man who was a rent-delinquent tenant of their Plantation rental townhome.

The complicating factor: Randy Tundidor has a son named Randy Jr., who was there that night. Randy Jr. has turned state's witness, cutting a plea deal for second-degree murder by implicating his father as the killer. But Randy Sr.'s attorney says Randy Jr. was the killer and had another accomplice.

Linda Morrissey and her son survived, escaping the home after the intruders set the house ablaze and fled.

It's a brutal case.

And as a parent, all I can think about is how traumatized that kid must have been, and how he's doing today.

April 24, 2012

Cop killer Albert Holland deserves himself as attorney

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 24, 2012 08:32 AM

Whatever you think about the death penalty -- and I've waffled back and forth plenty -- there's no doubt that those condemned to die at the hands of the state deserve every legal consideration before the sentence is finally carried out, if it's ever carried out. (With 400 inmates on Florida's Death Row and only a handful executed each year, most simply die in prison, not in Starke's death chamber)

By his own admission, Holland shot and killed Pompano Beach cop Scott Winters in 1990 after a struggle when he was questioned about a sexual assault.

Now Holland, 54, is going to get another bite of the apple at acquittal, after a series of battles and blunders that stretched to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Miami overturned Holland's conviction and ordered a new trial, his third, because a Broward judge improperly rejected Holland's requests to represent

himself at his 1996 retrial.

Having Holland serve as his own lawyer could make a circus and a mockery of the proceedings, but that's what the U.S. Constitution allows, so long as the defendant is deemed mentally fit to stand trial.

Holland has gone through different court-appointed attorneys like dirty socks, and one of his former defense attorneys told me Holland is a "master manipulator" who's been "gaming the system" since day one, setting booby traps and going back-and-forth on many things to lay the foundation for legal errors and appeals.

If he gets a third trial, it's unclear if Holland would ask to represent himself or if he would work with another set of court-appointed defense attorneys.

Holland, who has had mental illness and escaped a mental hospital near Washington, D.C. the year before Winters' death, may be crazy, but he's apparently not stupid. He has become well versed in the law, keeps meticulous records, does his own research and launched a successful letter-writing campaign. He was lauded by a Supreme Court justice for having a better knowledge of legal deadlines than his appeals lawyers.

As I wrote in the column, if there is a new trial, it would be poetic justice if Holland could hang, I mean represent, himself.

"Like you, I still need to hold a newspaper while drinking my morning coffee," Joe McAuvic of Pompano Beach wrote me by email. "

Reader Neil Ptashkin echoed the sentiment: "It is one of the few real things left in our tech world."

"I was reading your column, my morning coffee in hand, when I came to the part where you said how much you like reading the paper with your morning coffee," reader Tony Navarra of Margate said in a voice mail.

So score one for the old-school crew, those who like their news non-virtual and tactile.

I heard from roughly two dozen people about the column, and most commented about how they like to hold the paper, feel it, immerse themselves in the pages, not just scan through words on a computer screen or hand-held device.

And the nice part of reading a real three-dimensional newspaper today: smudge-free ink means those messy days of yesteryear are lone gone.

Of course, the sobering part is nearly everyone I heard from was older than me. So the rapidly-evolving media transformation to a digital, flat-screen world keeps marching on, bit by byte.

Here's another nice e-mail I just got, from reader Daniel Galloway:

When I was growing up I always looked forward to reading the morning newspaper(Mostly the comics and Sports sections) with my dad while we had our "coffee"(chocolate milk for me) before I went to school. Even though by trade I am a software developer and part of Generation Y (26 years old) I still like the fell of the newsprint in my hand while I sit on my couch and read the morning paper.

Where it all leads, we still don't know. Whether there'll still be printed newspapers 30 or 40 years from now, we still don't know.

But it's nice to know that there are a lot of folks who feel the same as me.

Namely, if someone wants to take away our morning paper, they'll have to pry it from our cold dead hands.

April 20, 2012

Runcie's priorities for Broward schools laudable

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 20, 2012 08:53 AM

If there's one thing to remember about schools in general and Broward schools in particular, it's this: When change is proposed, somebody's always going to grumble. Doesn't matter if it's school boundaries, bus policies or class scheduling, you're never going to make all the parents, students, teachers and workers happy.

Even if the change is for the greater good.

In his first year as Broward schools superintendent, Robert Runcie seems to keep making changes for the greater good. His priorities: getting more teachers in classrooms and getting classes down to required sizes, sparing the district an agonizing annual rite of facing huge fines from the state for class-size violations.

To that end, a couple of big proposals have emanated from the school district's Crystal Palace headquarters this week:

1) A major reorganization that would cut a lot of middle-management and administrative fat by eliminating "area superintendents" along with streamlining accounting and bookkeeping functions.

Both have been met with howls of protests from people who might lose their jobs and teachers/students who would be disrupted by scheduling changes. But Runcie says this would be a way to hire more teachers and meet class-size requirements.

Everyone should support that, especially after Broward schools' maddening cycle of the last few years, when June teacher layoff announcements would be followed by annual fines from Tallahassee for class-size violations.

The cycle seemed to make no sense, especially when you looked north to Palm Beach County schools and saw that district avoiding annual bloodletting and putting more teachers into classrooms.

Runcie seems to be taking a logical approach. But he also has to make sure that teachers aren't shortchanged with loads that are too heavy or planning time that is too short.

A commenter named Distressedteacher posted this in response to the schedule proposal: "For the average high school teacher, this change means teaching 30+ more students per day with 70 fewer minutes of planning time for no additional pay. More students with less time to plan for them means shortchanging students."

Oh well, welcome to the real world, where workers keep being asked to do more with less, for the same pay.

At least Runcie seems to have the big picture clearly in focus. Instead of protecting bureaucrats and managers like previous administrations, he's eager to put more teachers in classrooms. For that students, parents and teachers should be thankful.

April 19, 2012

South Florida's transit future: Cars, trains...or boats?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 19, 2012 10:07 AM

So, what's the future of transportation in South Florida: more cars and better roads, more mass transit like commuter trains/light rail/express buses, or if dire predictions about climate change and sea-level rise come true, gondolas for all?

I'm kidding about the last part, but plans and action for South Florida's transportation future through 2040 are now taking shape.

And then there are proposals to add light rail on a loop in downtown Fort Lauderdale (the Wave) and buses/trolley/light rail along the east-west I-595 corridor in Broward. There's also been talk of bringing commuter rail to the eastern freight rail tracks that actually run through downtowns to augment or replace Tri-Rail (which runs along I-95).

Add it all up and you're still left with a sprawling, jumbled mess.

The part I like about the Reason Foundation's road/tolls/bypass approach is that embraces the fundamental reality of our region: This is car country.

No amount of wishful thinking or environment-saving transit boosterism is going to change that.

Especially with a mass transit system leaves much to be desired, used more out of economic necessity than convenience.

Especially in a sprawling region with no centralized core, where people zig-zag in all directions between home/work/play.

Robert Poole, the Reason Foundation transportation expert who lives in Plantation, thinks express buses on better roads would be the most attractive and flexible mass transit option over costly and potential money-losing endeavors like light rail.

Yet a lot of the establishment policy boards, like the South Florida Regional Planning Council and county Metropolitan Planning Organizations, remain wedded to rail projects or higher density downtowns that would allow people to ditch cars and walk/bike around town.

I don't know if that's realistic.

But as I wrote today, all I know is that given the choice between idling in traffic with $4 a gallon gas or keeping moving with tolls everywhere, the road ahead looks expensive.

April 18, 2012

Jeb vs. Rubio -- Let the VP parlor games begin

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 18, 2012 08:45 AM

Now that Mitt Romney has finally emerged as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, it's time to move down the checklist to the media's next favorite obsession: divining who his running mate will be.

Marco Rubio, the telegenic Cuban-American junior U.S. Senator from Florida and fast-rising political star, has always been on everyone's list.

For Bush, it might be a risk-free gambit. If Romney loses, Bush can still come back and try for the nomination in 2016, when Obama exits the White House. If Romney wins, it means Bush gets an easy but delayed path for his presidential run -- in 2020, with a vice-president stint already on his resume.

For Romney, Bush makes a lot of sense. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has strong links to Michigan and Utah, needs regional balance on his ticket and the Bush name will play well in the south and Texas.

Bush could also help with Hispanic voters, an area that Romney needs a boost, perhaps even more than Rubio, who has been hard-line on immigration. Bush speaks Spanish and his wife is originally from Mexico.

Bush can also help Romney shore up tepid support among conservatives, and the Bush name isn't as big a liability as four years ago, when George W. left the White House amidst two wars and an economic crisis.

We'll see where this leads. Feel free to share your thoughts, analysis or alternate VP suggestions.

April 17, 2012

Allen West's next target -- Witches or fluoridated water?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 17, 2012 08:56 AM

When Allen West speaks, I don't know whether to laugh, cry or scream.

His latest bout of lunacy: At a town hall meeting in Martin County last week, the Republican U.S. Rep. from Plantation said that "I believe...78 to 81" Democrats in Congress "are members of the Communist Party."

Not that absurdity and guilt by association has ever stopped West before, whether the topic is gays, Muslims or liberals. Apparently, West was attempting to equate Democrats who belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus to communists.

I can't wait to see who or what West targets next. Here are some West headlines we might see in coming months:

"West: 32 witches populate Congress, Supreme Court"

"West: Fluoride in water leads to socialism, higher taxes"

"West: Army of Castro clones set to invade Florida, topple U.S. government"

The worst part: West gets rewarded for this, raising oodles of campaign cash every time he moves the needle on the Wacko-meter.

Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the closest thing to a communist in the U.S. Capitol (he likes socialism), but as far as I know nobody else in Congress has advocated for government owning all the means of production or dismantling free markets and capitalism, central tenets of communism.

As the Communist Party of the U.S.A. website explains:

"We believe that the American people can replace capitalism with a system that puts people before profit...Until we win enough support to change the system, communists call for radical reforms under capitalism. We call for nationalization of the banks, railroads, and industries like steel and auto. Everyone who wants to work should be guaranteed a job or get unemployment payments until she/he can find a job."

Even though Republicans and Democrats voted to bail out banks and automakers during the 2008 economic meltdown, temporarily putting partial ownership interests in the hands of the federal government, nobody in Congress has run and won on a full-fledged Communist platform.

West's latest controversy came when he responded to an audience member who asked "what percentage of American legislators are card-carrying Marxists?"

"Good question," West said. And then he came up with the "78 to 81" number (As a comic touch, that level of specifity was pure brilliance.)

The Facebook post was seen by someone with access to Beckman's page and then forwarded to theGrio.com, a local website geared toward black community issues.

Free speech rights and all, I'm always amazed when government/public workers in posititions of responsibility post things on the Internet as if nobody's ever going to see it, speaking as if they're talking only to a buddy next to them at a bar after too many beers.

I don't know what should happen in this case, whether Beckmann can or should be sanctioned for airing thoughts apparently on his own time on a social networking site.

All I know is he revealed spectacular ignorance. In the case of Trayvon Martin, whose parents divorced when he was young, his mother is a Miami-Dade government worker, according to the Miami Herald, and his father is a truck driver whose girlfriend is doing well enough to live in the same gated community in Sanford as Zimmerman.

So what does welfare have to do with this case?

All Beckmann did with his post was reinforce the view among some that some public servants like firefighters (and cops, like Mark Furhmann in the O.J. case) can harbor racist feelings, a disquieting prospect for black community members.

Meantime, there's one crucial racial question underlying the whole Martin/Zimmerman incident that might never be known: If Martin were white, would Zimmerman have found him so suspicious walking down the sidewalk that he felt the need to call police and follow him?

April 13, 2012

Do McDonald's and hospitals mix?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 13, 2012 07:09 AM

Certain things in life are incongruous. Pharmacy chains sell alcohol and tobacco. Churches that preach against the evils of gambling run bingo nights. Wealthy environmentalists decry overconsumption and pollution, then fly off to their summer homes in private jets.

And then there are hospitals. Two things always make me chuckle in a startling way when I have occasion to visit Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale or Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.

1) Along the sidewalks outside, invariably there are patients in hospital gowns puffing furiously on cigarettes. I'm assuming these folks aren't in for lung cancer or emphysema, but the sight always gives me a jolt.

2) Near the main lobby, McDonald's beckons, with their yummy but oh-so-unhealthy Big Macs, McNuggest and super-sized fries.

I say the hospitals should let the McDonald's stay, so long as there are other options for workers, visitors and patients (and let's not forget that McDonald's does offer some healthier

menu options like salads). At Broward General, there's a Subway just down the hall from McDonald's so that should make Jarred happy at least.

Yes McDonald's presence gives a mixed message (kind of like a dentist giving his kid patients lollipops on the way out), but America is nothing if not one giant walking contradiction.

Hospitals can be harried, stressful places, and McDonald's can offer a bastion of comfort to family members who are scrambling in crises (and who haven't eaten for a while) or to scared youngsters who might perk up with a Happy Meal.

I remember one time when my daughter had a health scare when she was young, an infection that caused her legs to freeze. We rushed to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital at Memorial Regional in Hollywood. After being poked, prodded and injected with IV needles, she was traumatized. And hungry.

I trudged down to the McDonald's, picked up a cheeseburger Happy Meal and brought it back to her room in the kids' ER wing.

April 12, 2012

Trayvon Martin case: Murder charge could be high hurdle

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 12, 2012 09:38 AM

Special prosecutor Angela Corey threw the book at Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman, bringing the maximum possible charge of second-degree murder.

Corey said she went where the facts led her.

Cynics might say she went with the path that would placate the huge public outcry over the case and put Zimmerman in a tight spot where he might be most prone to work out a plea deal.

I'm not surprised that Corey charged Zimmerman with something.

I am surprised about the second-degree murder charge.

The legal hurdle for second-degree murder: that Zimmerman acted with malicious intent and a "depraved" mind in killing Martin.

This suggests that Corey might have uncovered new evidence among witnesses or elsewhere showing that Zimmerman acted in a malicious manner, and not in self-defense as he has claimed (and as accepted by Sanford police, who let him go the night of the killing).

Perhaps it might be something showing that the screams for help heard on 911 tapes came from Martin, not Zimmerman, or physical evidence or witness testimony suggesting that Zimmerman stood over a begging Martin in those final moments before pulling the trigger.

I thought manslaughter was the charge most likely to result, given what's publicly known about the case. But Corey's investigation might have shed much new light about the gap between Zimmerman's 911 call when he pursued Martin and the confrontation that ended with Martin's death.

Much more will be known as the state slowly reveals its case to the defense through the discovery process.

And let's not forget that Zimmerman and his attorneys will still get two more bites of the apple from the controversial Stand Your Ground law in claiming self-defense. His lawyer will be able to ask a judge to determine whether Stand Your Ground should apply -- resulting in charges being dismissed -- before it gets to trial.

If the judge rejects that motion, Zimmerman will still be able to argue self-defense before the jury.

Another surprise this morning: Martin's mother telling The Today Show that she thinks the shooting was an accident. If that turns out to be the case, manslaughter -- not second-degree murder -- would be the most appropriate charge.

April 10, 2012

Ozzie Guillen flap -- The power of words

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 10, 2012 08:41 AM

As South Florida awaits Ozzie Guillen's news conference this morning at the new Marlins Park explaining his "I love Fidel" remarks to Time magazine, a few thoughts:

--The power of words is an amazing thing. As a writer, words are our tools, and they must be used carefully and precisely. Same goes for anybody who is a leader and who must communicate as part of the job. That's where Guillen stumbled in this case. If he had never used the words "love" and "respect" with Fidel Castro, and had said something like, "Fidel Castro amazes me -- the way he's held on to power and stayed alive for so long, with so many people wanting him gone," I don't know if this controversy exists.

--Then again, what the heck is Guillen doing venturing so close to the Third Rail of Miami Politics with a reporter from a national magazine nearby? We still don't know anything about the context of this conversation, whether Guillen was just riffing, or whether he was specifically asked his thoughts of Fidel. But again, just because somebody asks you a question, doesn't mean you have to answer it.

--Marlins owner Jeff Loria and team president David Samson have been strangely absent and silent as this crisis brews. Not good crisis management, but then again, they never seem to care much about what others think, except when they're trying to shake down a community for money. Apart from a weekend statement, they've been letting Guillen do all the talking. Given what's at stake with the new stadium and their new investment, they're going to have to step up. I could see them waiting until Guillen gives his big mea culpa today, but by this afternoon, one of them needs to step in front of a camera and explain just what the team's response is going to be.

April 9, 2012

Ozzie Guillen's Fidel Flap -- What should happen?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 9, 2012 11:17 AM

If life were the movies, this is the point when new Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen would be summoned to Dean Wormer's office in Animal House.

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son," Dean Wormer famously chided a floundering frat pledge named Flounder.

Perhaps Marlins president David Samson, a huge movie buff, should play the clip for his new skipper. And then read Guillen -- a 48-year-old former big-leaguer who sometimes seems like a stunted adolescent -- the riot act about being on double-secret probation.

Guillen telling a reporter that he drinks every night on the road? Well, that's just Ozzie being Ozzie. Guillen telling Time magazine that he loves Fidel Castro, then amending his remarks to say he "respects" the Cuban dictator for surviving so long in the face of so many people trying to pick him off? That's just plain stupid.

I suppose Guillen could have said something worse to start his Miami tenure. No, strike that.
There’s nothing dumber he could have said, considering the team’s new Little Havana location and Latino-friendly rebranding efforts.

The Marlins aren't back home until Friday, and you get the feeling this story is going to keep percolating. After a weekend apologizing, explaining and spinning, Guillen said Monday that he would fly back to Miami on Tuesday to hold an open session at Marlins Park to express regret and answer questions.

Should he resign, be suspended or fired by the team or get a second chance?

In today's world, there's a difference between what should happen and what will happen. Of course, people are free to have opinions in this country, but leaders of organizations have to be sensitive to the business and cultural realities of their surroundings.

Guillen, a Venezuelan who won a World Series managing the Chicago White Sox and who has kept a home in South Florida for years, should know better.

What Guillen said was spectacularly insensitive, and it has to make everyone in the organization wonder if he is fit to be the public face of this franchise.

It also has to make you wonder what he might do for an encore. Show up for a Trayvon Martin Million Hoodie March wearing a KKK hood? Go to a Boca Raton deli for Holocaust Remembrance day next week and say that Hitler was misunderstood?

Like everything in modern-age sports, Guillen's fate probably will boil down to the almighty dollar.

If there’s enough local fan outrage to fuel boycotts and hurt attendance and merchandise/concession sales at that pretty new playpen, owner Jeff Loria and Samson might have no choice but to cut Guillen loose.

If the community shrugs its collective shoulders and people keep buying boletos (tickets) and $12 cubano sandwiches at the ballpark, then Guillen will survive. At least until the next time he inserts his foot in his mouth.

April 5, 2012

Marlins travelogue -- the aftermath

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 5, 2012 11:07 AM

My assignment for the Marlins Opening Night in their new ballpark: Leave downtown Fort Lauderdale at 5 p.m. and see what it's like getting there.

Worries about traffic and parking in the cramped neighborhood around the ballpark have spooked a lot of baseball fans, especially ones from Broward and Palm Beach Counties who were used to breezing into Sun Life Stadium.

It turns out the trip wasn't so bad. And that was the consensus among the Broward and Palm Beach fans I ran into. With the trip not as bad as feared, people who thought they'd come only a handful of times say they might become frequent visitors.

And the stadium was stunning. As much as I hate public money going toward billionaire sports owners and millionaire athletes (can't their leagues afford to buy their own damn stadiums?), you've got to give credit to the people who conceived and designed this place.

Getting home, it turned out, was just as smooth for me. Parking near the courthouse, and the 836 highway entrance ramp, turned out to be a blessing. But the half-mile walk back from the ballpark can be a bit intimidating for families. (There's lots of homeless near the courthouse).

I left in the top of the ninth, at 9:45, was back at my car at 10 p.m., and was home by 10:30 p.m. The traffic might be a bit stickier for those in the ballpark garages, but all in all, it was a pretty easy ride.

April 4, 2012

Marlins opener: Field of schemes, screams or dreams?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 4, 2012 11:36 AM

So I'm getting ready to cross the county line to take in tonight's Marlins opener at their fancy new playpen from a Joe Fan perspective, and I don't know whether I'm excited or dreading the assignment.

My task for Thursday's print column: Leave downtown Fort Lauderdale at 5 p.m. (quitting time for most working folks) and see how long it takes and what it's like dealing with traffic and parking (I have no special parking pass) and making my way into the ballpark. If I'm lucky, I'll make it for the first pitch. If I'm not, I'll be there for the seventh-inning stretch.

I'll be looking for other northern commuters, those from Broward and Palm Beach Counties, to share their experiences. And I'll also give my thoughts and impressions of the new stadium, which I've only seen from the outside so far.

When I took a drive around the neighborhood with my brother visiting from New York a few weeks ago, my daughter said, "It looks like a spaceship landed." And swallowed parts of Little Havana whole. On that drive, I was struck by the lack of stadium/direction signs exiting the highway and on surrounding streets, but I'm sure people will be able to find the place. Just follow the traffic.

Oh well, I'll just have to grin and bear it. As a former sportswriter, I tend to get cynical about over-hyped events, but I'll keep an open mind and try to enjoy myself too.

The last thing I wrote about this stadium was a blog entry a few weeks ago titled, "Marlins keep looking better -- from my living room." As a fierce critic of public stadium financing for wealthy sports teams in general and of this project in particular, I would have been happy never setting foot in the place.

As I wrote a few weeks ago: "When it came to this stadium (roughly $600 million funded by bonds that will ultimately cost taxpayers more than $2 billion to repay), my saying used to be: If Miami-Dades' buying, I'm driving.

But now, with the price of sporting events so high and the aggravation of traffic, parking and $4 a gallon gas thrown in, my saying is: See ya, Marlins, I'll wave to you from my couch.

These days, with HDTV and instant replays via the magic of DVRs, I'd much rather watch sports at home. I can grill a steak and down a nice bottle of wine for the same price as a rancid hot dog and watery beer at the ballpark. And there's no line for the bathroom."

So, what are your plans? Do you care about tonight's game, and are you going? And how frequently do you expect to take in the Marlins this year?

April 3, 2012

Funeral home massacre: Is there a double standard for outrage?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 3, 2012 08:50 AM

Imagine you were a space alien who just landed on earth. And imagine there was no such thing as race or ethnicity, that all humans were simply human. Which situation would be more shocking and outrageous to you?

a) A man takes part in a neighborhood watch program where he lives because he's concerned about crime and safety. Perhaps he's a little overzealous, with some calling him a wannabe policeman, but neighbors say he's an OK guy. One night, he sees a youth he doesn't recognize walking in the neighborhood and he becomes suspicious. The man starts following the youth, and calls police. A confrontation and fight ensue, and the man fatally shoots the youth, who turns out to be unarmed. The shooter claims self-defense, and the police release him without arresting him, citing a law that might allow for his actions.

b) Hundreds of mourners are at a funeral home for a young man's wake. Suddenly, without warning or provocation, unknown gunmen in a passing car indiscriminately spray bullets on a parking lot, at a crowd including women and children. Two men are killed and a dozen people are wounded, including a 5-year-old girl. Police search for clues and the killers, but no arrests are made in the first three days. Police say the violence is gang-related, perhaps related to a slight that happened at the wake.

Both cases are disturbing, but which case constitutes the greater danger to society at large? And would you be surprised to learn that one case sparks widespread revulsion and national protests, while the other is just shrugged off as part of life in the big, rough city.

I didn't directly ask whether a racial double standard was at work. That was the not-so-subtle subtext.

Much has been made about the racial element in the Sanford shooting, with Martin a young black and George Zimmerman a light-skinned Hispanic.

All the victims in the funeral home shooting were black, and a lot of people are presuming the shooters are also black. (Police haven't given any physical details of any suspects other than to say they may have driven a white car, possibly a Dodge Charger).

Once you inject the highly-charged aspect of race into the equation, all sorts of people like to jump to all sorts of conclusions. Would the Martin case have triggered such widespread anger if Martin and Zimmerman had the same skin color? And do certain activists and groups shy away from expressing outrage and crying injustice if a case involves blacks on blacks, especially in poor neighborhoods where violence is all too common?

Everyone can draw their own conclusions. Trayvon Martin has become a household name and an international cause, while the Funeraria Latina victims will be all but forgotten by the next news cycle.

April 2, 2012

If Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, then what?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on April 2, 2012 09:08 AM

If the U.S. Supreme Court throws out the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, then where would that leave health care and the ranks of America's 30 million uninsured?

Conversely, if Obamacare and its mandate for all individuals to buy health insurance (with an assist from the government for the poorest) is allowed to stand, will that do anything to fix an uneven health care system whose biggest problem is skyrocketing costs?

All I know is that the current blended system of private and public health insurance (government administered Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, and private insurance that's often joint responsibility of workers and employers) is maddeningly confusing, complex and inconsistent.

Even with Obamacare, our overall health care system might not get any cheaper or more efficient.

Isn't that the biggest problem?

Parts of Obamacare, which passed Congress two years ago but which hasn't been fully implemented, sound good (like letting kids stay on their parents' plans until age 26 and banning the industry practice that discriminates against those with pre-existing conditions).

But even with Obamacare, the private insurance industry will be allowed to spend one of every 5 health care dollars (20 percent) on overhead -- administrative costs, marketing/advertising, executive bonuses. That's a lot, when compared to other industrialized nations with nationalized health care.

Again, I don't know the answers. All I know is how much more I'm paying -- with higher premiums, co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles -- than 10 years ago.

A decade ago, my portion for the premium of my work-sponsored plan (which covered two people, me and my then-wife) was $2,477. Now, my premium for two people (me and my daughter) is $4,032. That's a 62 percent increase.

A decade ago, I didn't have to pay a dime when I saw my primary care physician, in-network care was reimbursed at 100 percent and my out-of-pocket maximum was something like $1,500 for the year. Now I have to pay $25 to see my primary care physician ($40 for specialists, $150 for ER visits), much in-network care is only reimbursed at 80 percent and my out-of-pocket maximum can hit $6,000 in network, $12,000 for out-of-network care.

MICHAEL MAYO has been the Sun-Sentinel's Broward news columnist since 2002. He is not a failed sports writer, as some detractors contend, just a lapsed one. He came to South Florida to cover sports in 1989. He now takes aim at everything under the sun. He was born in Brooklyn, went to college in Boston and has also lived in London and Spartanburg, S.C. His hobbies include losing weight (unsuccessfully) and losing golf balls (very successfully).